Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
[Music] You're worthy of it all. You are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. That name above all names. Worthy of it all. Jesus, you're worthy of it all. [Music] For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. All the saints. Let's sing it. And all the saints and angels bow before your throne. And all the elders cast the crowns before the lamb of God and sing. Sing it again. All the saints. Thank you, Jesus. And all the saints and angels that bow before your throne. And all the elders cast the crown before the lamb of God. And see you're worthy. You're worthy of it all. You worthy of it all. [Music] For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. [Music] Jesus, you're worthy of it all. You're so worthy. You're worthy of it all. For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. All the saints and all the saints and angels they bow before your throne. And all the elders cast their crowns before the lamb of God and sing. You're worthy, Jesus. You're worthy of it all. You're so worthy. You're worthy of it all.
So beautiful and far from you are all things. to you all things. You deserve the glory. Yes, you do. You're worthy. You're worthy of it all, Jesus. You're worthy of it all. [Music] For from you are all things. To you are all things. And you deserve the glory. Day and night, day and night, night and day, let in arise. Day and night, night and day, let in day and night, night and day. Let incense arise day and night. Night and day. Let in arise day and night. Praise it with me and day. Let in day and night. Night and day. Let incense rise. You worthy of it all. All that we can give you today. Jesus. You're worthy of it all. We love you, Lord. For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. You're worthy of all we can give. You're worthy of it all. Give him your all this morning. Praise you, Jesus. You're worthy of it all. all. You're worthy of it all. For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. All the glories due to you. Lord, we give you praise. You're worthy of it all. Jesus. For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. All the glory, Lord, you're worthy of it all. Oh Jesus, [Music] you're worthy of it all. Oh my life, my breath. For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. Jesus, you're worthy of it all. Jesus, you're worthy.
You're worthy of it all. All the breath in my body. Yes, Lord. Far from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. All the glory. Let's do that. Day and night. Day and night and day. Let in day and night. The incense of our praise. [Music] And the Lord inhabits our praises. He inhabits and night and day. us in surprise. You are worthy of it all. Jesus, you are worthy of it all. All of our song. For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the gloryy. All the glory, Lord. You're worthy of it all. We glorify your name. You're worthy of it all. For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. [Music] All the glory, God, worthy of it all. We give it all to you, Lord. You're worthy of it all. Yes, Lord. For from you are all things. To you are all things. You deserve the glory. [Music] Jesus. I don't I don't know who this is for, but I'm not sure who it's for, but I'm going to say that the Lord I'll be bold enough to say that the Lord says he's going to take care of you and he loves you. And I just begin to feel an overwhelming presence of the love of the Lord for us up here. He loves us and he's going to take care of you. [Music] Hallelujah, Lord. I agree with that. I believe that, Lord, that you love us. You're going to take care of us. You just want us to walk with you, Lord. You promised you'd walk with us. We have to choose to walk with you, Lord. And that's what we choose today. And I pray that everyone that hears this message today will do the same.
We thank you for it. Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, I think part of the technology is working today, but some of it's not. Isn't that something? I I guess AI is attacking us. Who knows? They probably know we're enemy number one in their book because it's a problem. Let me check on something here. Y'all don't look. Don't peek. Let's see here. All right. That's what I thought. I'm going to need a knife. [Music] Thank you. I'll give it back to you in a minute. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Hallelujah. All right. Well, um, this will be part two. Last week, we talked about faith, and I'm going to talk about it a little bit more this week because, uh, you know, it's talked about a lot in the Bible. So, y'all don't know what it is. And a lot of people don't know what it is because, uh, they don't know the difference between living faith and dead faith. So last week we covered the what great faith is and we looked at the woman, the Canaanite woman who wanted Jesus to set her daughter free from demons and what he uh what he did in ignoring her and moving on and even insulting her. And she refused to get offended. She persisted and she believed in her heart who he was. enough to worship him and call him Lord. So that's important to understand because it does come faith comes by hearing, right? Hearing by the word of God. How do we get saved? Bible says what? We hear the word the gospel, the truth. We believe it in our heart, right? So there comes a when we truly understand it and believe it, we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. Somebody say that's an action. Okay. But what have I said many times to you over the years? If you confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but you do not mean to make him so, you still going to do what you want with your life. You're not going to surrender to his will. You're not going to repent of your sinful ways. Then what did that make you? A liar. Right? Remember 1 John 2:4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar.
So, what I've entitled this today is dead faith. Because there's real faith and then there's dead faith. And what we have in Christianity right now, and I'm talking about across all denominations, is you have those who have true, genuine, born again faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is, God in the flesh, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind, who never sinned when he walked this earth, rose from the dead, and is deserved to be worshiped and obeyed. Somebody say obeyed. This is the problem. We got a lot of people that have faith. They believe. Oh, I believe in Jesus. Wait till we go out this weekend on the streets. Those of you that go with us, and what you're going to hear, oh yeah, I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. You know, I wrote about it in Grace Abuse many years ago. Going on the Auburn campus to witness. I've been going on the Auburn campus for years to preach and witness to people. And we got guy carrying in a cooler full of beer into a frat party with his girlfriend hanging around his neck. And we ask him, "Hey, we want to talk to you about Jesus." "Oh, I know Jesus. My dad's a Baptist preacher. Like that doesn't make you saved. That doesn't mean your faith that you believe. He may actually truly believe that Jesus is real. But if his actions do not follow that, then his faith is what is defined in the Bible is dead. And dead faith will not do anything for you. You understand that? I'm going to show you where Jes Jesus told the church, you have a name that you're alive, but you're dead. Why? He said, "Because I haven't found your works, perfect, complete, full." We're going to talk about that in a minute. I'm gonna get to all these scriptures, but I want you first to turn with me to James chapter 2. Now, Martin Luther did a lot of good when he resisted the false doctrines of the Catholic Church, broke away from the Catholic Church, and God used him as the spearhead of the Reformation, which was greatly needed to break the stronghold off of the world of the Roman Catholic Church.
Now, was Martin Luther perfect? No, he was not. And this is something that we got to get down in our hearts. is that did God use him to break away and make people understand that they were not saved by the rituals set forth by the Catholic Church such as partaking of the Eucharist or infant baptism or what they called confirmation. all these doctrines and practices, uh, last rights, all of these things they said you had to do to ensure your salvation. And then even then if you died in the Catholic Roman Catholic faith, you you went to purgatory where your family and friends and priests had to pay for priests to say enough prayers to get your family souls out of purgatory into heaven. Now that see Roman Catholicism is a fully religious worksbased system. And I'm just using it as an example, but maybe somebody need to know that. Okay? And and so because of that, Martin Luther comes out and goes takes Paul's writings, which Peter said, some of it's hard to be understood. And he took Paul's writings where Paul said, "We're justified by faith alone without works." He takes that and it's true in the context of works that man has created for himself to do. See the whole different about difference about religion versus true faith is religion makes a bunch of things. It says you need to do it like the Roman Catholic Church. And then there is the true faith that teaches you that you must develop your own relationship with Jesus. Hear his voice, hear him speak to you through scripture and by his spirit and then you obey that. That's the difference. So any system that comes along, any religion that comes along say you got to do A, B, C, and D. And none of it's in the Bible. Mormonism, Jehovah Witness, I mean, we could go down the list, right? Anything like that that sets up its own list of dos and don'ts. Seventh Day Adventist, you better keep the Old Testament law, right? Torah heads, Hebrew roots, Torah movement completely of the devil completely.
But it almost sounds like a contradiction because you can go from Romans 3, four, five, six. It sounds like Paul's saying, "All right, we're justified by faith and not by works lest any man should boast." Remember Ephesians. But then James writes by the Holy Spirit without faith, right? Without works, rather faith is dead. Is that a contradiction? No. And that's why again you have to understand the context and the definition of these things because you'll see what examples that he gives and it's amazing. So let's read this so you'll know it's not just me. James writes here what does it it uh verse 14 what does it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and hath not works can faith save him? Right? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, "Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled." Notwithstanding, you give them not those things which are needful to the body. What does it profit? And then he continues the thought, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. Yay, a man say, thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. Oh, this is where most of See, the devil has some faith. Oh, the devil believes in Jesus. The devils, the demons believe in God. They know he exists and they believe in him. Does that save them? No. Oh, most of the American and European church world is defined right there. They believe Jesus exists. They say I They would say, "I believe the gospel. I believe in heaven and hell. I believe Jesus died for my sins. But their faith has never come alive because they refuse to fully surrender and fully make Jesus Lord. Therefore, making their actions fit what they say they believe. Oh, that if we could get this across, he continues. Let's continue. He says after he says, "Thou believest that
there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, oh vain man, that faith without works is dead?" Now he repeats this again. Think about that. And then he says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works?" Oh, wait a minute. Time out. Say that to a Calvinist and their the gears in their brain start jamming up. Was not Abraham our father justified by works like when he uh offered up when he had offered up Isaac his son upon the altar. Seeest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect. Somebody say faith is made perfect. is made perfect. If you hear from the Lord, you hear from the Lord and do what he says. Ain't that amazing? See, Abraham did not decide on his own or he didn't go to a church council and find out that he needed to go offer Isaac. He heard it directly from God. Now, the scriptures are God. It is God speaking to us. Okay? And the scriptures come first. But God will make known to you his will through the scriptures by his spirit in many ways. His still small voice which you don't hear like you hear me. But he will speak to you on the inside. Sometimes he will show you in a dream like he did with Paul. Paul didn't know where to go. Had a dream that night. Sad a vision in the night. That's a dream. said a man of Macedonia said, "Come over here and help us." And he said, "When they woke up, they knew we got to go into Macedonia. Sometimes it's a vision while you're awake. Sometimes God sends you a prophet or someone to speak to you and confirm to you and let you know the will of God." But this is what I'm talking about. real faith. Active Christianity, active Christianity is walking with Jesus. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. How can you follow somebody if you can't communicate with them? How can you How can you follow somebody if you won't talk to them? That's called prayer. How can God speak to you through the word if you won't spend any time in the word?
You know, back in the old days, we didn't have GPS, ground position system. You say, I say ground because there's no such thing as GPS satellites, right? But think about it. We didn't have that. So, how did we how did we get places back? You know, I wonder how we we got anywhere, right? You would read a map and if that wasn't clear enough for you, then you would call your friend that you were trying to get to their house or whatever, or you would stop and ask somebody, which men had a hard time doing, but you stop and ask somebody, and guess what? The communication gave you the directions. Sometimes you had to scratch some things down or you could just remember it. And that's how we got around. Boy, you tell you what. Now that the phones go off, these these kids are going to be lost. Yeah. You better get some old maps. You might need them. All right. But communication, think about it. This is the beautiful thing. Abraham was called a friend of God. Why? Because he had a relationship with God. He could hear God's voice so well that even when God told him as a test, he didn't know it was a test. Go offer Isaac your son, he was able to hear, "Stop. Don't do it." as he's getting ready to do it. See, this is how close to the Lord you need to be. I've had the Lord tell me to do things and then tell me to stop. He's and and God's not testing. He doesn't have to see what we will do. It's for us to let us know where our heart is. Are we truly a disciple, a follower of Jesus? Are we just a believer? Now, this morning, I know y'all are wondering what this is here. Um, this is my friend, dead Fred. I call him dead Fred. Y'all think I'm gonna mutilate him. He's already dead. Uh, this is for a reason here. But think about this this way. I I I brought this up. Now, I used this in a message years ago about uh the dead husband versus the living husband. It It's a long story. when I was fighting Robkea and the whole Torah movement world out there. But this is an illustration. Think about this. This is dead faith and I'm the living faith. Right? That's how different it is.
Y'all got that? Hold on a second. We got to cut him down. Fred, I'm cutting you loose. All right, come with me now. I guess I'll put a knife down. Let me hug you for a second. It's not good to be dead. But see, dead Fred is dead. Oh, I'm juggling this and trying to juggle the microphone, too, here. So, now let's put up the definition of death there. Dead works. You don't want to be in there. All right. Say this. I can be a dead believer. Oh, somebody say out or me. Right. Oh, me or amen? Which one is it? Hold on a second, Fred. All right. Here's the word I I and this is just the of course in the blue letter Bible the this is all the lexicons kind of brought together but this this is a good definition. Let's look at what death means when he says dead works. He says uh dead is one that has breathed his last uh lifeless. And remember it says faith we're going to see this as we read on. Faith is like the body without the spirit. And spirit is also numa also means breath but it also means spirit because God breathed in us and we became a living soul. So what he's saying there is that your faith can be completely lifeless. No breath not what you want to be. And then he says, "Dece deceased, departed, one whose soul is in heaven or hell." That's if you're dead, you're in heaven or hell, destitute of life, without life, inanimate, not moving, not not doing anything. Spiritually dead, destitute of life that recognizes and is devoted to God because given it's given up to trespasses and sins. Boy, this right here, isn't that you're spiritually dead and destitute of life because you've given yourself up to trespasses and sin. That's the way you live your life, a lifestyle habitually. Therefore, even if you say, "I believe in Jesus." Even if you say, "I was born again." No. If you live in habitual
lukewarmness, habitual dead faith, habitual disobedience, habitual rebellion, you are dead in trespasses and sins. Even though you were once alive, that's that that's why I had to preach that message years ago, twice dead and plucked up by the roots from the book of Jude. You don't want to be twice dead. And then he says just simply inactive as respects of doing right, destitute of force or power. Inactive, inoperative. So he says here, let's keep reading. Let's go on down to verse 29. I'm sorry, not 20, 26. He says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Now, let's put up the word for works is urggon here. In the Greek, it's urggon. Anybody? That sound familiar to anybody? Ergonomics. Ever heard that term? Fred's laying on my glasses. I got to move him over here. Say, if you're dead, too, you just get in the way. Erggon here. It means somebody say, look at this. An act. I like that. an act, deed, doing, labor, work, toil, effort. Man, people work all day long. They put a lot of activity and effort and doing into making dollar bills. Do you do the same in your relationship with the Lord? How diligent are you? How hard do you work at it? say, "Pastor, it's not of works." Well, wait a minute. But what do our works show us? Shows us how much we love or how much we're dedicated to something. That's why Jesus said, "You can't serve God and money. You have to make up your mind." Now, yes, we have to make a living, but that making a living can become what? An idol. real quick because them those dollar bills make life a little more fun. Right. Somebody said, "I've been rich and I've been poor and rich is better." Right. But the goal in life is not to be rich. That's not shouldn't be our goal. Americans, you know, that that's the pro the whole prosperity gospel came along because that's what people wanted to hear. I mean, really, what's in the heart of the people is what's going to come out of the weak pull pits because they're going to give you what you want, right?
But this means and like Urggon, let's look at they say ergonomics. I love this. just the definition of ergonomics and y'all could just put up the regular just sorry the next one. I know I gave you this one. You're you got them in order. Hallelujah. That's that's great. One more. No, I guess y'all don't have it then. Anyway, let's move on. All right. Now, I want you to turn with me. Matter of fact, you can leave that one up right there. That's where we're going. Now, go to the book of Revelation, chapter 3. Do you know there's pastors in this country that won't even do a message out of the book of Revelation? They won't even look at it. They won't touch it with a 10-ft pole. And yet it's the one book in the New Testament says a blessing if you read it and understand it. Meaning God wants you to understand it. But you going to have to give some diligence to read and study it. Right now here's where we're going to uh chapter 3 verse one here. The church at Sardis. This was their warning. Now listen closely. He says here, "And unto the angel of the church in Sardis, write these things he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know thy works, that thou hast the name that thou livest and art dead." Can we pause for a minute? Let me tell you what he's saying to them. I know your works. This is what he's telling this church. Your works are not what I'm telling you to do. is what you want to do. See, let me give you an idea. You know why this church doesn't have a youth group? Because you I ask you one question. Show me where youth group is in the Bible. Okay? Now, I'm not saying churches shouldn't have them, but they shouldn't have them just because of tradition. If your church has a youth group, it better be because God Almighty himself has told you that your church is supposed to have a a youth group. And if he hasn't, then your works are what? Wood, hay, and stubble. They're going to be burned up at the judgment seat because they are worthless to God. A lot of stuff we do in the church world is useless. God did not ordain it. He did not command it. He did not lead it, but it's done every single week.
Like I can assure you, Joel Ostein, God did not tell Joel Ostein to put that fake globe spinning around behind him. Now, he'd say, "Oh, that's the Lord told us to do that." I can tell you right now, the Lord didn't tell Crelo Dollar, I need $60 more million dollars to buy me a new jet airplane so I can fly around like P diddy. Do you understand? A lot of things are done and it doesn't the Bible the number one the Bible doesn't say do it and another thing the Lord hadn't said to do it. Let me tell you, we've avoided a lot of stuff since we decided no more youth groups. We had one in the beginning. Trouble with a capital T. And the Bible says too, we're not supposed to put noviceses or newly come to the faith or young believers in charge of leadership. And what do they do a lot of times youth group? They stick some young guy or girl in charge of the youth group and all it does is so we got our group over here and that you know the the adults they don't know what's happening and it produces arrogance, pride, division and usually especially if the guy's in his 20s there's situations where oh yeah they get involved with the 16 your 17-year-old and then you got that problem to deal with. Let's read this. He said, "You have a name, church. I know your works, but you have a name or reputation that you are alive." People think you're on fire for Jesus, but you're dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I have not found thy works perfect before God. Now let's look at that word perfect. That's an interesting word. And see what this morning is is teaching more than preaching. Okay? That's why I'm giving you a lot of definitions. When he says, I have not found your works perfect, say nobody can be perfect. Let's let's look at what the word is here. And it's playro or playoo or something like that. how you pronounce it. But notice it just says here to make complete in every particular to render perfect. Now to God, it's not he knows that we're not going to be without sin. We're going to do some things we say some things, think some things. We're going to do some things we shouldn't. But he when he's talking about it, he's like, if I give you a task to do, I want you to get it done.
Amen. I've had the Lord tell me to do things and I drug my feet and then he'll say, "You better get it done." I remember the Lord told me to write The Polluted Church in 20 He started telling me to write that in like 2009, but I'm starting a new church. I'm working full-time construction. We got a baby. Then I, you know, I'm going through all that. I and I'm telling the Lord, I would love to write this book, Lord, but I don't have time. I just told him one day. I said, I don't have time. I can't do it. And then with that same I told him that on Monday. On Thursday, I tear my Achilles playing basketball at at a the job. We had a uh Christmas party thing right before Christmas break. Tore it. 100% tear. And I heard the Lord the second it tore. Now you have time. Sometimes like me, if you drag your feet, you're going to be dragging one from here on out. I wear out my left shoe all the time because I can't walk the same as I used to. And it reminds me, don't be slow about obedience, Mr. Aiden, or you're going to look like this. And and you'll be stupid. That's for free. He knows what I'm talking about. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Church. Sorry. But let's keep Oh, go back to that definition. I'm sorry. I didn't finish it. And then he goes on to say, I want to say this. To fulfill, i.e. to cause God's will as made known in the law to be obeyed as it should be. God's promises given through the prophets to receive fulfillment. So he's saying again is what? To fulfill to bring to perform to bring these things to uh effect to accomplish something. What did Paul say right before he died? He said, "I have finished my course and I have kept the faith." Will you be able to say that when you die? And what was Paul's course? It was the course that God gave him, not the course he had. Think about Paul. Paul was in dead religion.
God had moved on from that. Jesus and the new covenant, that was the next thing God was doing. You either what? move with the cloud or do you die in the desert? And God moved, but the religious clung to the old. I know some churches like that today and they're dead. There's a bunch of charismatic, Pentecostal, tongue-talking, prophesying, believing in healing churches that are dead. They quit moving with the Holy Spirit a long time ago. A different spirit came in. Familiar spirit, a condolini spirit, and they don't even know it. That's what he said. You have a name yet. You're alive and dead. He told the lukewarm church, "You're blind, wretched, miserable." He said, "And you don't even know it." How would you like to be left that way? You're spiritually dead. Your faith is dead. Your works are not complete before God. People think you are a a true Christian. And the Lord's going, "You have a name. You're alive, but you're really dead. Nobody knows it because you hide it behind your religion, completing God's works." Let's keep reading here. I'm going he says to them after that verse three remember therefore how thou hast received and heard hold fast and repent. So what he's saying to them is remember how you used to walk with me. Remember how you were in love with me and on fire when you first got saved and you couldn't wait to pray and you couldn't wait to read the Bible and you couldn't wait to be around truly spiritual people. He said, "Remember that. Remember how you were when you were truly alive." And then he says, "You got to repent. You got to change." But he says, "If therefore thou shalt not watch," and this is referring to spending time in prayer and for the end time prophecies. He said, "I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon you." He says, "You have a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy." Y'all hear that? He said, ' There's a few of you in the church of Sardis that have not defiled your garments by living in habitual ongoing sin and rebellion or just doing things your own way, just just creating religious works on your own.
He says there's a few of you. And then he says verse 5, "He that overcomemeth, the same shall be clothed in white reignment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches." Do y'all see that? Blot out. Does anybody know how you get your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Anybody know how it gets in there? You had to be saved. Mhm. You had to be born again. You had to have repented at some. You had to have been alive in the spirit, truly born again, walking with the Lord at some point. But you let it die. You went back to the pig pin. You got lazy. You became dead faith. But see, the problem is is that we know Fred dead, right? Because we can see his bones. But you walking around like this in the spirit. That's what you look like. I'm alive. Lift his hand up for me. Praise the Lord. I'm alive in Jesus. I believe in Jesus. Yeah. [Music] But the Lord sees you're dead. And he sees that your garments, he's got a few little Well, no. I guess his chains can be something. Be his rags, right? But he's not clothed in that white clothing. What is that white raignnt? That white it it it's defined as the righteousness of the saints in Revelation 19. So it means the saints who choose to live righteous, choose to obey, choose to press into a relationship and hear his voice, choose to be a disciple, not just a churchgoer. Let me tell you. Oh. Oh. Oh. Come on. He going to sit. Sit right here. Raise his hand up again for me. Church goer. I'm Fred. The church goer. I'm Fred. I'm singing the songs. Right. Dead. Dead faith. Dead spiritually. The only thing left for dead Fred is to die fully physically and go to hell.
He's down. Fred's down for the count in the front row. You don't want to end up there, right? And he tells them that they have to overcome. What do they have to overcome? Being dead. Uhoh. This is what they got to overcome. Dead faith, dead belief, dead relationship, dead works. Fred ain't got nothing to smile about. He's a true church goer right there. He ain't got nothing to smile about, but he's smiling. Better wipe that smile off your face, son. Put him right here. Now Fred's sitting on the front row smiling at me. Now he says, "He that overcomemeth, the same shall be clothed with white raignment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life. I want my name to stay in the book of life. I don't want to walk around a fake Christian, dead on the inside but pretending on the outside. And the only way you overcome becoming Fred is you got to be on fire. And you choose to stir up the gift of God. and you choose to put down the world and the distractions. And you choose to go to the place of prayer. And you choose to get back in the word. And you choose to truly worship in private as well as in public. And you say, "I'm going to seek him until I find him. I'm going to knock until the door is opened." Because really what it all comes down to, put up uh John 17:3. Y'all want to know what eternal life, you want eternal life, here's what it boils down to. Jesus said it himself when he was here. He said, you want to understand this? Here it is. Verse three, these and this. He says, "And this is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou has sent." It's not do you know about him. It's do you know him.
It's not do you go to church. It's not even do you believe. It's do you know him enough to hear his voice and be doing what he wants you to do as a disciple. Then it's alive. See here, let me give you an example. You can say all day long, I love the lost, people that are not saved. I love the unsaved. Oh, this is what church says. Well, I don't know about them gifts, but you better love people. Okay, that sounds good. They talk about love all the time. All right. Yet, how much time do they spend praying for lost and unsaved people that their eyes will be opened? How much time have they spent actually in their prayer closet weeping, realizing people are going to hell around them? And then do they go to those people and actually share the gospel with them? See there was what was the guy it was uh the atheist penet pen Gillette. Yeah. A few years back he said a guy came to his show and said very well-dressed very wellto-d do businessman came to his show said he was a fan. met him afterwards, knew he was an atheist, but you know, said, "I feel like that the Lord wanted me to give you this." And he gave him a Bible. Now, knowing he's an atheist, and this guy is trying to talk to him about Jesus. Now, here's what's funny. A lot of atheists, you do that, they get mad. Why are you getting mad about something if you don't believe it doesn't exist, right? But what he said and this was I mean this went viral because he said you know what that man believes what he says and I look at him and go he's the one that actually really does care about me because if he believes hell is real and that I must believe in Jesus then he should he should if he loves loves me, want me to be saved, and want me to go to heaven. And so he greatly appreciated that because he recognized it as an act of love. So don't tell me about you love the lost. If you're not praying for those people that are lost around you and if you're not willing to go talk to them, well, I'm afraid it might hurt their feelings. I'm afraid they might get mad at me. But what did Jesus say?
He said, "When you tell the truth, father will turn against daughter and daughter against mother." And sorry, but the truth of Jesus Christ and what is righteous and holy and what is evil though when you when you lay down that sword, it's going to divide. Families get divided. Churches get divided. People leave churches because they can't handle it. But that's okay. That's part of it. And we ought to know that's part of it, right? Let me go to Titus chapter 1. It's just now 12, so we're doing good. We'll start our descent from Atlanta. What did I just say? Titus. That's right. I didn't really get to this last week. I think I might have read some of it. Actually, I think I did read this, but I didn't read it all the way to the end, did I? Now, basically, Paul tells Titus, "Go decree. I want you to set and order things. I want you to correct the false doctrine and all this crazy stuff going on." But I want you to go down to what he said in verse 16, the last verse. He said, "They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him." [Music] They say, "We know Jesus." Fred would say this, "I know God." Here, here's what Fred would say. I know God. Look at my smile. I know God. I know the big man upstairs. I can't tell you how many times I heard that on a construction site. After they've been talking about bleep, [Music] every foul, unclean thing under the sun, they're talking about it and how they like doing it. Oh, but I Yeah, I know God. Me and the big man upstairs, we we close. He's helped me out of a few jams. You know why he can say that? Cuz God probably has helped him out of a few jams cuz the Lord causes to rain on the just and the unjust.
All right? And let me tell you something. This this dead Fred living in his sin and his dead faith, if God blesses him at all or does anything for him, it actually is a curse because it cements him in his dead faith. I would rather everything, if I get like this, I'd rather everything go wrong and I finally hit rock bottom like Fria did a minute ago so I can realize I'm dead. See, the church at Leodysia had to be told by a prophetic word from the Apostle John, a vision of Jesus telling, "Go tell the church of Leodysia that they're neither cold nor hot." I wish they were either cold or hot. Why did Jesus say, "I wish they were cold or hot?" Because if they were all the way cold, they would be aware of it. They would know whether they're a drug addict in the street or an alcoholic or a practicing adulterer or a homosexual or or trapped in transgenderism and they're miserable and suicidal. Jesus said there's only that's the only way to be hot or cold. But if you are lukewarm, see lukewarm is this. I believe in Jesus. Raise a hand up for me. Praise the Lord. Somebody give me a hallelujah. Hallelujah. Right. 1:00:071 hour, 7 secondsBut when he goes back home, he got nothing. 1:00:141 hour, 14 secondsAnd this is where many people are. There are people in this room right now that used to be hot, then they went to lukewarm. 1:00:261 hour, 26 secondsAnd some of them are still in the lukewarm place with dead faith. And some of them are in the cold place and they know it. 1:00:361 hour, 36 secondsSee, to me, this is scary. The scariest thing, and my wife has said this, she said the scariest thing to her 1:00:431 hour, 43 secondsin the Bible is when 1:00:551 hour, 55 secondsyou had the five virgins, the wise, and the five foolish, because the five foolish were convinced 1:01:041 hour, 1 minute, 4 secondsthat they were going to be with Jesus when he came back. 1:01:101 hour, 1 minute, 10 secondsYou couldn't have told them they're not going to make it. They didn't. They wouldn't have believed you. 1:01:211 hour, 1 minute, 21 secondsThat's what's scary because that's the way Jesus says the church will be at midnight, at his second coming. 1:01:281 hour, 1 minute, 28 secondsonly half will wake up enough to go, "Oh, we're ready because we still got 1:01:351 hour, 1 minute, 35 secondsoil in our lamps. Our lamps are still lit. There's still some fire. There's still some oil." 1:01:431 hour, 1 minute, 43 secondsBut the foolish wake up and they go, "Wait a minute. Our our lamps are gone out. We're out of oil. Hey, wise. Give 1:01:501 hour, 1 minute, 50 secondsus your oil. It's too late." And the and the wise went to be with 1:02:001 hour, 2 minutesJesus. And the foolish are knocking at the door. And the Lord says, "I know you not." 1:02:111 hour, 2 minutes, 11 secondsSee, they had a dead faith. 1:02:141 hour, 2 minutes, 14 secondsThey weren't ready. And and let me just tell you, there is no real faith without persistence. 1:02:241 hour, 2 minutes, 24 secondsIf you quit, if you give up, that means your faith has died. How many 1:02:331 hour, 2 minutes, 33 secondspeople just said, "I can't do it anymore. I'm just going to give in to where the devil's pulling me." 1:02:421 hour, 2 minutes, 42 secondsPeople are struggling with lust. They're struggling with drugs and alcohol. They're struggling with depression. 1:02:491 hour, 2 minutes, 49 secondsAnd the devil's trying to pull them into this hole. 1:02:531 hour, 2 minutes, 53 secondsAnd finally they say, "I just can't do it anymore. I give up." And and some of them put the the gun to the head and pull the trigger. 1:03:051 hour, 3 minutes, 5 secondsThat's dead faith. 1:03:071 hour, 3 minutes, 7 secondsThat's faith that's died. That's faith that's not alive. It's not It's not ready. 1:03:181 hour, 3 minutes, 18 secondshad a friend of mine not too long ago, a good friend of mine I grew up with, 1:03:271 hour, 3 minutes, 27 secondsstruggled with drugs his whole life cuz he got hooked on crack back when that hit. 1:03:351 hour, 3 minutes, 35 secondsAnd let me tell you, he went to uh he went to the uh Teen Challenge up in Huntsville. He was in that for a year. 1:03:441 hour, 3 minutes, 44 secondscame out of that and I'm gonna tell you that man was born again. 1:03:491 hour, 3 minutes, 49 secondsThat man was saved and set free from the drugs and the alcohol. 1:03:551 hour, 3 minutes, 55 secondsI remember when he came back to Montgomery and and I was teaching in this big church. I was doing the singles ministry in this huge church in Montgomery and I remember him coming in 1:04:041 hour, 4 minutes, 4 secondsthat one morning early to pray with us before we did the Sunday school. 1:04:101 hour, 4 minutes, 10 secondsAnd I mean, he he was praying with me and some other brothers and his face was just glowing. 1:04:161 hour, 4 minutes, 16 secondsI'm telling you, literally saw the glory of God on on his face, his eyes, I mean, then God blessed him. Beautiful 1:04:261 hour, 4 minutes, 26 secondswife, had a baby. He moves from Montgomery to Gulf Shore, starts his own contracting business because he was 1:04:331 hour, 4 minutes, 33 secondsgifted. He could do anything he wanted to do. 1:04:391 hour, 4 minutes, 39 secondsNow, part of it, I know he had been molested when he was a kid. 1:04:451 hour, 4 minutes, 45 secondsI know his dad had kind of walked out on him. He had he had some he had some wounds. He had some pain in his life. 1:04:541 hour, 4 minutes, 54 secondsBut I thought, man, he's really he's really doing it. 1:05:001 hour, 5 minutesThat lasted about three years. 1:05:051 hour, 5 minutes, 5 secondsAnd then he goes back to the crack. And you know, if you've been addicted to crack, you can't touch it, not one more time. Because if you 1:05:131 hour, 5 minutes, 13 secondsdo, you're going to be right back in the same spiral. 1:05:171 hour, 5 minutes, 17 secondsAnd boy, he lost everything. His wife, his daughter, his business. 1:05:241 hour, 5 minutes, 24 secondsHe gets so bad off that he actually gets a plastic gun and robs Steinmart in 1:05:321 hour, 5 minutes, 32 secondsMontgomery and goes to prison. 1:05:361 hour, 5 minutes, 36 secondsHe's in prison for a while. During his time in prison, he gets off the drugs again. He repents. He gets things right with God again. He comes out. I get to 1:05:451 hour, 5 minutes, 45 secondssee him again. I'm just hoping, you know, hoping and and praying that he's going to that he's going to make it. 1:05:541 hour, 5 minutes, 54 secondsThen one day he crawls under his he he drives into to uh one of these uh auto parts stores to get something and he's 1:06:021 hour, 6 minutes, 2 secondsworking on his F-150 and he jumps out of the truck and he scoots underneath it to get something or look at something and then the truck rolls up on his chest. 1:06:131 hour, 6 minutes, 13 secondsHe said he could hear all the bones cracking and breaking and snapping and popping. And then of course with that much weight on you, you can't inhale or 1:06:211 hour, 6 minutes, 21 secondsexhale anymore. It's it's like he knew he was about to die and a guy comes running over and gets the truck off of him. 1:06:311 hour, 6 minutes, 31 secondsSurgeries later, you know, he's finally he's finally come back around and again, so I'm thinking, man, he's doing good. He called me every 1:06:401 hour, 6 minutes, 40 secondsnow and then. I thought, man, he's doing he's back doing good. 1:06:441 hour, 6 minutes, 44 secondsAnd then I hear sometime a couple of years after the truck accident, he passes away. 1:06:551 hour, 6 minutes, 55 secondsAnd I I'm like, "Oh, God, I hope he was alive in Jesus. 1:07:031 hour, 7 minutes, 3 secondsI hope he was walking with the Lord." And come to find out what killed him, went back to the drugs and overdosed. 1:07:141 hour, 7 minutes, 14 secondsAnd I hope I hope that maybe he had a moment before he 1:07:231 hour, 7 minutes, 23 secondsdied that he called out to God and the Lord had mercy on him. 1:07:331 hour, 7 minutes, 33 secondsBut I don't know. 1:07:381 hour, 7 minutes, 38 secondsSo, what are we what are we going to find out? What a few few months back I preached don't be a goat. 1:07:511 hour, 7 minutes, 51 secondsThis is Don't be dead Fred 1:07:591 hour, 7 minutes, 59 secondswith a smile on your face sitting in church praising the Lord, 1:08:091 hour, 8 minutes, 9 secondsbut you're not on fire for Jesus. You don't love Jesus. Your your your actions do not prove. 1:08:171 hour, 8 minutes, 17 secondsSee, I only some of you I only see on Sunday or maybe sometimes I see you Sunday and Wednesday. 1:08:251 hour, 8 minutes, 25 secondsSo I don't know what you do all week long. 1:08:301 hour, 8 minutes, 30 secondsYou could be Aiden's friend. Dead friend sit right here. He likes to sit by you. 1:08:471 hour, 8 minutes, 47 secondsCareful. He likes to love up on folks. Rub off on you. 1:08:541 hour, 8 minutes, 54 secondsLet's stand this morning. 1:08:571 hour, 8 minutes, 57 secondsI need to return a knife so no one will think I'm violent. 1:09:061 hour, 9 minutes, 6 secondsSee, I was hoping they just had him hooked in here, but they had him tied in here. 1:09:101 hour, 9 minutes, 10 secondsSomebody didn't want Fred coming out in the night. 1:09:191 hour, 9 minutes, 19 secondsNow, I'm not going to give altter call because you know what? 1:09:231 hour, 9 minutes, 23 secondsSome of you that are dealing with this wouldn't come up here anyway. 1:09:271 hour, 9 minutes, 27 secondsOh, don't shout me down. 1:09:321 hour, 9 minutes, 32 secondsBut you need to deal with it. And you know who you are. 1:09:371 hour, 9 minutes, 37 secondsAnd you may appear to be smiling and happy and joyful and and you really are dead. You're either 1:09:451 hour, 9 minutes, 45 secondsdead in trespasses and sins you won't get out of or you're dead in your own religious works and you're not hearing the Lord's voice and hearing his will for your life. 1:09:561 hour, 9 minutes, 56 secondsI mean, if you you know something, if you want to boil Pastor Dean's messages down to one thing, what would it be? 1:10:041 hour, 10 minutes, 4 secondsWhat do you think, Pastor Dean? 1:10:061 hour, 10 minutes, 6 secondsShe said, "Not saying." It boils down to this. It's all about 1:10:151 hour, 10 minutes, 15 secondsknowing Jesus, hearing from him spiritually, supernaturally, 1:10:231 hour, 10 minutes, 23 secondsand living a life of obedience. And if you do fall, you don't stay down and wallow in it. You get up, ask for 1:10:301 hour, 10 minutes, 30 secondsforgiveness, and move on with him. Ain't that the beautiful thing? Amen. 1:10:351 hour, 10 minutes, 35 secondsThat if you do fall down, he'll let you get up and clean you off and let you get back on course. 1:10:421 hour, 10 minutes, 42 secondsSee, that's the love and mercy of our God. He loves us. He wants us to make it. 1:10:511 hour, 10 minutes, 51 secondsLet's pray. 1:10:531 hour, 10 minutes, 53 secondsHeavenly Father, I just ask you right now that we would not be any of us in here would not be like the Leodysans and be 1:11:011 hour, 11 minutes, 1 secondblind to our condition. 1:11:061 hour, 11 minutes, 6 secondsIf we're dead, we have dead faith and no actions that prove that we mean what we say. 1:11:161 hour, 11 minutes, 16 secondsAnd Lord, I pray that will change. that conviction of the Holy Spirit will come upon those here who need that conviction. 1:11:261 hour, 11 minutes, 26 secondsIf you feel uncomfortable right now in church, you should feel uncomfortable. 1:11:291 hour, 11 minutes, 29 secondsThat's a good thing because you need to be convicted of something before you 1:11:371 hour, 11 minutes, 37 secondscan act on it. Because see, if you have dead faith, you've been believing wrong. 1:11:441 hour, 11 minutes, 44 secondsAnd when you're convicted, the Holy Spirit and the message is trying to tell you the right way. 1:11:531 hour, 11 minutes, 53 secondsSo Lord, I pray that they will receive this. That spiritual blindness, satanic blinders will be broken off of their minds and hearts in Jesus' name. 1:12:051 hour, 12 minutes, 5 secondsThose watching and listening, I pray that for them right now. 1:12:091 hour, 12 minutes, 9 secondsif they've never truly been born again and had that supernatural experience of surrendering to you as Lord and Savior 1:12:171 hour, 12 minutes, 17 secondsand knowing that the sin is washed away, that they felt cleansed, that they felt peace, they felt joy, they felt your love come in. If they've never 1:12:261 hour, 12 minutes, 26 secondsexperienced that, Lord, let them repent and be born again, believing in the Jesus Christ of 1:12:321 hour, 12 minutes, 32 secondsNazareth of the Bible, not the Baptist one, not the Presbyterian one, not the Roman Catholic 1:12:411 hour, 12 minutes, 41 secondsone, but the true biblical historical 1:12:481 hour, 12 minutes, 48 secondsliving Jesus Christ. 1:12:561 hour, 12 minutes, 56 secondsBecause Lord, I want everybody who's ever heard me preach or teach, 1:13:031 hour, 13 minutes, 3 secondsto make it to heaven, to have eternal life, to walk with you in white, 1:13:111 hour, 13 minutes, 11 secondsto not have their names blotted out of the book. 1:13:161 hour, 13 minutes, 16 secondsThat's what I pray Lord for this church, everyone here and those watching and listening all over the world. 1:13:261 hour, 13 minutes, 26 secondsLord, we pray for your Holy Spirit conviction and lead them into that place where they 1:13:331 hour, 13 minutes, 33 secondsare hot on fire, boiling fervently, zealous 1:13:421 hour, 13 minutes, 42 secondsto know you and to walk with you and to hear from you and to be led by the Holy Spirit. 1:13:481 hour, 13 minutes, 48 secondsThat's what I pray. What does the Bible say in Romans 8? The sons and daughters of God are what? 1:13:571 hour, 13 minutes, 57 secondsAre led by the spirit of God. 1:14:011 hour, 14 minutes, 1 secondSons and daughters of the devil are led by their own fleshly desires and dead religion. Someone say amen. 1:14:121 hour, 14 minutes, 12 secondsAmen. Or old me. All right. Don't be dead Fred. 1:14:201 hour, 14 minutes, 20 secondsHug some next before you leave. God bless y'all. We'll see you next time. Sync to video time